Thursday, January 16, 2014

Just wanted to put up this photo here I took with my cell phone. Lots of fun working in the Hecht Speed Shop during the Thanksgiving trip down to California. We don't get to do this very often, so it was fun to wrench on a Mustang GT and Subaru WRX. Dad and I put the Goldline Springs and KYB GR-2 shocks and struts in the Subaru and put a stock strut bar in Brent's Mustang. Even washed up old "Sally" before we left.

Monday, January 13, 2014

The other night I put a new can of black Plastidip to use on the front and rear "H" emblems. Turned out pretty cool. Up close in day light I noticed they need some touch up though. Pretty cool stuff and easy to apply. I masked them off as I'm not totally used to just spraying and then peeling it off perfectly good paint. :)
The Fit is knocking down right at 40mpg which I'm really happy with.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Wow, 2010, that's the last blog post in here. Serious crickets. Doesn't mean tons haven't been going on. This will be long... and I can't even promise that many photos. :) Who am I even writing this to. Probably just myself and those close to me who will get a link in a text or email from me saying, "Hey, I put a new blog up, go check it out, see what you think." I'm super rusty with blogs. Do people even do blogs still? I used to follow blogs a lot more. Well, let me catch us up for the last 3.5 years or so haha.

So, I bought a 2002 Subaru WRX in April 2010. Here's a photo of it about 6 months or so after I bought it. It was a factory wingless car and I bought it from the 2nd owner as you see here except I had the axle back exhaust added. Well, I just sold it last week. But, I did take it to Bonneville twice, the second time I rode out with my pop and broseph to catch some racing action and cruise the pits looking at hot rods and race cars. I had added a custom straight pipe to add some loudness to the suby's rumble. One of my favorite mods. Shoot, the straight pipe will live on to see another suby, or be cut up and turned into an axle back for my 2011 Honda Fit. Woops, spilled those beans a little early.
Here's a photo above that I took on my trip to Bonneville in 2010. This is a memorable photo. I had a blast with the subyrod. I fixed it up quite a bit, every time something would wear or go bad, I'd get it addressed. Last year I upgraded the brakes with the StopTech Sport brake kit with SS lines and blue fluid along with BC coilovers, Whiteline roll center adjusters and an aggressive street alignment and cornerbalance at Innovative Garage.

I went totally solo so I had to take a "selfie" with my cell phone haha.

I actually took it to Miller Motorsports Park last April, my first track experience. It wasn't a full on HDPE or anything, but one of their "Wide Open Wednesday" events. It handled really well. It was well balanced and made it through the track event reliably for having 170,000 miles or so. Yikes! I sold it just last week with 188,000 miles, on the original motor, trans and turbo.

The last couple years has been crazy busy with coaching and attending youth baseball games for my boys. We haven't made it to too many car shows unfortunately. I did put my suby in a cruise-in at Station Park in October, kind of its last hurrah I guess. Sad face.

But on to bigger and better, err... smaller and lighter. I picked up a 2011 Honda Fit Sport with the 5 speed transmission in Polished Metal Metallic (aka Dark Gray). Totally stock for now, but its a Certified Honda used car with only 27,000 miles, so it even came with a 12,000 mile warranty and the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. Stoked!
Here's the basic specs: 2,489lbs, 117hp from a 1.5L SOHC i-vtec, FWD and comes with a rear sway bar for the Sport model. So far I'm getting 40mpg in the 2 tanks.
When I got serious about looking for a car once I decided to put the suby up for sale, I originally went to go look at a 2010 Fit base in white. When I got there (Stockton 12 dealership) the salesman and I couldn't find the car. I walked around the entire lot in the freezing cold while he checked his info and came back out and so, "Oops, the car is at a different lot being sold right now." Crap!!! So, when I didn't see any Fits with my price/miles/5speed requirements I started looking at newer Civics. Of course, that was after driving a 1995 Civic LX sedan with 5 sped and 130,000 miles for $3000. After driving that 18 year old POC, I knew right then that I needed to go newer. I spent some time researching newer sedans, cars like the Ford Focus, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord and Civic, Mazda 3 and 6, it came down to what was I going to really enjoy owning. My wife was really concerned that I didn't get a "grandma" sedan and then in 6 months hate life and want to get something different. So, being a small car kinda guy, I found another Fit to go check out. To this point, I had never driven a fit. I sat in one at Willey Honda like 4 years earlier, but it was an automatic and I didn't want to get a bad taste in my mouth of the Fit by driving a slushbox. So, I found a 2010 dark blue base model with 5 speed and took it for a long test drive home to show the wife and kids. I really liked it. It had 48,000 miles and they were asking $11,850. Not bad. Pretty low miles and I liked the blue color and didn't mind the base model's appearance. But, it didn't have cruise control and no arm rest. I wasn't too worried about the steelies and hubcaps because obviously those will become winter wheels or go up for sale. I returned to the dealership (Ken Garff in SLC) and I offered $10,717, which was the kbb.com Exellent Condition retail price. They declined, saying that they'd lose money at that price. So, we agreed to disagree. The car had been on the lot for 2 months already. So, I think they were asking too much. I went home, a little bummed, but with the intent of talking it over with my wife. I was willing to go up to about $11,400 or so. Well, on my drive to work, I was feeling disappointed and not sure what to do. Was really feeling the Fit. I postponed calling "Fast Eddie" at Garff and my wife and I went back to ksl.com classifieds looking for more Fits. It just so happened that Garff had this gray Fit Sport with less miles for $2k more. Plus it was certified! On my way to Garff to take it for a spin, I swung by Henry Day Ford in WVC to ook at a 2010 Fit Sport in black for $12,900. It was clean and drove great, but I saw some scratches on the body and some gaps in the front bumper and fender that I was weary about. I got to Garff and "Fast Eddie" said they just sold the gray one over the phone. I was pretty bummed, but figured the dark blue one was a good pick up too. Well, "Fast Eddie" went on the prowl and told me he was going to ask around and find out if he could unsell it and sell it to me since I was on site. The dude pulled it off somehow. So, I took a drive in "Lil' Gray" with Brandon and came back and said "I'll take it!". 2.5 hours later we were driving away in my new Fit. Long story, but now its recorded for posterity. :)

I can't leave well enough alone so I've got some "JDM Yellow" fog light vinyl coming in the mail and picked up a can of black Plastidip. The plan is to black out the emblems, maybe a rear bumper guard by the hatch and maybe do the rear lower valance/diffuser in black too. First time using Plastidip so I'll see how that goes and probably put up a separate blog post.